What is a Buyer Persona and How to Define Yours | Sales Layer

What is a Buyer Persona and How to Define Yours

Alma Muñoz · April 23, 2020

Table of Contents

What is a buyer persona?

A buyer persona is the ideal customer or buyer profile for the products or services that a business is selling. It is based on information obtained from market research, as well as current and potential customers.

Creating a buyer persona should be a priority for any company. Carrying out this type of research shows that the company cares about its potential customers and is trying to understand them and adapt the product or service, along with its message, to their needs.

Buyer personas are almost like a type of “fictional character”. Developing these profiles will allow you to define all the ideal characteristics that the perfect customer should have.

Uses and benefits of buyer personas

Product development: Buyer persona descriptions help the development team to create products and services with the end user in mind.
Content creation: The marketing department will be able to work closely with the sales team, since they share the same target customer profiles.
Sales tracking: Sales representatives can better understand customer habits and background, allowing them to determine the best way to deal with each customer.
Customer Support: Understanding the buyer persona can be useful during initial consultations and addressing specific concerns.
Corporate organization: Buyer personas enable all departments to focus in the same direction toward the real objective—the customer.

How to build a buyer persona for your business

To create a buyer persona, you need raw customer data, from which you can extract common patterns.

The buyer persona may be very clear for your business already, but you may be surprised to discover new niches that you had never even considered before.

Methods for creating a buyer persona

Do your own research: Analyze your database to find patterns in how customers find or contact you.
Active participation: Conduct questionnaires, surveys, and interviews with former or current customers.
Contact network: Gather information from your sales representatives who know how users react to your product.
Market research: Analyze buying trends, industry statistics, and competitors.
Web analytics: Review numerical data showing customer navigation on your website.

Is there such a thing as a negative buyer persona?

Defining your negative buyer persona can be useful for customer segmentation and to reduce non-converting traffic. This includes customers who do not fit the profile for your service or product.

Examples of buyer personas

Buyer persona templates adaptable to any industry

There is some key data that must be included in every buyer persona profile:

Name
Gender
Age
Geographical location
Personal interests
Work details
Personal details: routine, hobbies, events they usually attend
Favorite channels for viewing content
Type of vocabulary used in searches for the service or product
Typical problems related to the service or product

Conclusion

Getting started with creating buyer personas may require extensive research, but it benefits all departments of the company. Keep expanding and modifying your buyer persona regularly, as customers' preferences and your business may change.